The Mark Teixeira sweepstakes

In his blog today, Buster Olney notes that tensions between Mark Teixeira and Ron Washington as well as the young first baseman’s upcoming free agency may lead the Rangers to trade Teixeira sooner rather than later.

Of course, I started salivating at the thought of Teixeira in a Yankee uniform manning first base. The timing couldn’t be better. Jason Giambi is down and possibly out for the season. The Yanks need to make some move to shake up the team. And Teixeira is an utter beast at the plate and good with the glove. Good bye, Doug Mientkiewicz, in other words.

But then I arrived at this paragraph:

The Yankees have little to no interest in trading for Teixeira, by the way, because they know Texas will want a substantial package in return and they have no interest in paying for him twice.

In one sense, that paragraph dashed my hopes. Teixeira, with his .300/.400/.500 line, won’t be arriving in New York any time soon. But hidden in those words is hope for the future.

Based on what Olney is saying – the Yanks “have no interest in paying for him twice” – it’s clear that when Teixeira hits free agency in November of 2008, the Yanks will throw the bank at home. Jason Giambi’s albatross of a contract will be off the books, and the Yanks will have to fill a hole at first base. What better way to do that than with Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira will be 28 at the time, and I’ll say now, that is one big-ticket signing I’ll be supporting loud and clear come November 2008.

Teixeira worries me, personally. His aggregate home/away splits aren’t really that dramatic for the last 3 years: 50-60 point decline away. But…In 03 the splits were huge: 320 point huge. In 04 it was 70 points. In his amazing 2005 season it was 200 points. In 06 he had a reverse split, 200 points better on the road. This is the only thing that makes his splits look reasonable. This year he’s back on the same usual trend, with a 130 point difference, better at home again.

He’s basically a mid 30 home run hitter on average, with a home ballpark that’s conducive to hitting home runs. His OPS is usually slanted in favor of his home park, which is not surprising.

And he’s got Boras as an agent. Do we really want 7-8 years of this guy for $160M? Mark me down as pass. If he can be had at a reasonable price, sure, but he’s going to go for around $20M/year.

I admit I have no better ideas though.

Stylez

I say pass but the team will have no choice but to throw the bank at him since he’s a premier player in his very prime of his career. With the state of the players now He’ll also be something to build around as the players as Jeter-Alex, Damon,Posada,Matsui will all be in they’re mid to late thirties.

20 million??? Oh brotha’

Rich

My guess is that Teixeira will never reach free agency.

If the Yankees think that there is a reasonable chance that they could lose A-Rod after the season, they don’t have the luxury of waiting to find out if Teixeira may become a free agent.

http://riveraveblues.com Mike A.

On the surface, Tex is almost the perfect player: hits for great power and high average from both sides of the plate, plays Gold Glove defense, extremely durable, is young and enetering his prime, and can even steal a base. He’d have a chance to go down as one of the best third basemen ever if he didn’t move to first.

However, Mark Teixeira is such a HUGE prima donna that he’d make A-Rod blush. There’s a better chance of Carl Pavano pitching meaningful innings for the Yanks in October than there is of Teixeira handling NY.

Just say no to Tex. They’d be much better off signing either Chipper or Troy Glaus after ’08, and moving ‘em across the diamond.

http://www.riveraveblues.com Ben

I’d say no to Chipper. Jones hasn’t stayed healthy in a season since 2003, and he’ll be 36 come April of 2008.

Glaus, on the other hand, may be an alright choice. He’ll be on the wrong side of 30 however. Plus, the Yanks may need someone at third base and first base soon.

Rich

I have not interest in signing aging, injury prone veterans like Jones or Glaus, who may or may not ever reach free agency.